Is the original 9800 chipset worth it?

[ProBoner]

I noticed the price of these has come down quite a bit recently! From the benchmarks I've seen, the performance of these is still a little better than the 9600XL at the newer games so they probably wouldn't be a bad buy at $320cdn.

I was wondering if these are tweakable to match or come close to matching the 9800pro/XL chipsets in stock form?

Also does anybody know if there are any differences between the actual ATI 9800 card and the Sapphire Atlantis (9800) card?

[shiyan]

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

first of all, the 9800 is a lot faster than the 9600 XT.

$320cdn is quite a nice deal for a 9800.

if you get a 9800 with Samsung RAM, then your chances of running it at Pro speeds are very good. If you get Infineon RAM, then your RAM might not make it to Pro speeds.

if you are going to get a 9800, don't get the ATI one, as those come with Infineon memory, and you don't want that.

get the Sapphire one. although there are also some Sapphire cards with Infineon RAM, most people seem to get them with Samsung RAM.

if you get one with Samsung RAM, and you are sure it can run at Pro speeds, you can flash it with a 9800 Pro bios, and overclock the RAM even more than before the flash.

[Yuriman]

The differences between all 9800 labeled cards is in the pcb and ram. They all have the same gpu, and all run very close in clocks. It usualy just personal preference.

[Aslan]

Where have you found it for $320 CDN? The best price I've found is $335.

[Falcon-K]

welcome Proboner, the 9800 np is an awsome card and it does perform quite a bit better than the 9600 xt does..you shouldnt have too much a problem getting it to pro speeds if you get samsung memory like shiyan was saying

[Damian]

Make sure it's not a 9800se, though. Those tend to be slightly cheaper and much, much worse. Some retailers try to sleaze through by offering a 9800se and dropping the "se" part. Only way to tell is by checking the clock specs and/or board layout.

[ProBoner]

Thanks for all the help/info!!! :D
I will look into wheather these are SE models or the standard 9800's (but i did read a few minutes ago that SE's can be unlocked easily to match the 9800's)





Originally posted by Aslan
Where have you found it for $320 CDN? The best price I've found is $335.

These guys have the ATI model for $319: http://www.pcvillagecanada.com/Hardware.asp?cat=Video%20Card

The Sapphire is is at pccanada.com for $334 (QUOTE= Sapphire Radeon™ 9800 128Mb DDR AGP TV-Out DVI (OEM) - Sapphire - Powered by ATI®)

[shiyan]

if it is a 9800 Non Pro, then it shoudl be running at 325/290.

but for $320cdn I'd expect it to be a non pro and not a SE.

[Aslan]

Originally posted by ProBoner

These guys have the ATI model for $319: http://www.pcvillagecanada.com/Hardware.asp?cat=Video%20Card

The Sapphire is is at pccanada.com for $334 (QUOTE= Sapphire Radeon™ 9800 128Mb DDR AGP TV-Out DVI (OEM) - Sapphire - Powered by ATI®)

Great, Thanks for the link.
I don't think they have an online store, but I can still pricematch it somewhere hopefully. :)

As for whether they are Non-Pro's or SE's, I'm quite certain that they are Non-Pro, but the only way is to actually go to the store itself. :p

[ProBoner]

I know its probably a crappier card but is a Sapphire Radeon 9800 SE for $170us used any good?
Is the "SE" garanteed to have infineon RAM?

Also is a retail ATI 9800pro for $330us a good price?

[shiyan]

DO NOT get the SE. It is a crippled 9800 with half the pipelines.

do not fall for the 9800 in its name.

no idea what kind of RAM is on it.

Retail ATI 9800 Pro for $330 seems like quite a good price.

[ProBoner]

Its so tempting to just blow my wad (I mean load... I mean bank) and go with the AIW for about $395... If I could find samsung ram'd 9800np, that'd be the first choice, but the search is starting to **** me off! Everybody has either infineon, some other brand (some sapphire cards) or its retail boxed so I can't even tell :(

what's the success rate in flashing infineon ram'd cards to pro speeds?

and why do I need 100 posts to see the for sale section :'( :( :'( :(

[shiyan]

what's wrong with Sapphire 9800 non pro cards? most of them actually come with Samsung RAM. Built by ATI 9800 non pros all have Infineon RAM, so you don't want them.

Flashing 9800s with Infineon RAM is pointless, as they don't benefit from it. This is because the Pro cards all use 2.86ns Samsung RAM.

[ProBoner]

I didn't phrase that right... I wasen't saying sapphire was a crappy brand, what I meant was that Sapphires came with another brand as well (such as this case: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2762007362 )
it came with EtronTech chips... not knowing jack about that ram and not knowing wether this card had the crappier 4pipeline setup, I decided to hold off...

I might just pick up the AIWpro after tomorrow... but damn that's a lotta moolah :(